Okinawa Day 7: Our Last Night in Okinawa

The taxi driver that we had used all day was going to finish his shift before we were done watching the dance performance at Shuri Castle.  We arranged for him to pick us up at our apartment in the morning and bid him a good night.  He was a very friendly man and pointed things out to us as he drove us around Naha today.  After we were finished up at Shuri, we caught a different taxi and asked him to take us to a street that would have some reasonable restaurants.  He wasn't as friendly or helpful as our first taxi driver.  He dropped us off on a street near the center of town and told us to walk about 5-6 blocks and we would start to see some restaurants and a street market.
As we walked along, we found this large shisa dog and decided to pose for a picture.

We also found this dragon boat on display.  Every year, Okinawa will hold boat races using dragon boats like these.  They are a big deal, every year more than 150,000 spectators show up to watch them.  The kids loved this boat and thought it was awesome.

The Naha Dragon Boat Races were adopted from China more than 500 years ago The races are held annually to pray for the fishermen's safety and a big catch for the year. Young men from all over the island compete, and there are other races for boys and occupational organizations. Servicemen from the U.S. marines even participate in some of the races.

 We wandered around some of the tourist-type shops until we found this street market.  It was bustling with people, but we joined them and had fun looking around.  There were the usual clothing shops, stationary shops, and souvenir shops.

 But, there were also some unique things to see as well.  At this shop, there were coconuts with a straw sticking out that you could buy. 

This lady was grinding up sugar cane, like what we saw at Nakijin-jo, and selling it raw.

Adorable sno cones!  So cute!

Of course, there was also a shop where one could buy shisa dog pairs.  We also saw a man sitting and making these dogs out of terracotta clay.  I asked him if I could take his picture, but he said no.  He was very skilled, though, and we watched him for a little while. 

We almost bought a package of this seaweed.  We have seen pictures of it all over Okinawa.  I think it's so pretty.  It looks like a mini string of pearls or green grapes.  Ray could read just enough kanji to tell us that it is a type of seaweed found only around Okinawa.  It was very pricey for a small package, though, so we decided against it.  I looked it up later and found out that it is called umibudo seaweed.  It pops in the mouth like caviar and is highly nutritious.  You are supposed to eat it raw and can dip it in soy sauce if you like.

We found two fish tanks with large fish and the kids and I stayed here and watched them while Dad wandered around looking for a place to eat dinner.  We wanted to find a restaurant that would serve traditional Okinawan food, but we were having a hard time finding a place large enough to accommodate us.  All of the restaurants that were within our budget didn't have enough seats for our family!

As the sun was beginning to set, Raymond finally showed up.  He was pretty excited because he had found a restaurant that was all you can eat yaki niku and was within our budget!  It wasn't traditional Okinawan food, but that's o.k.  We had wanted the kids to be able to experience yaki niku, but we just couldn't afford it in Tokyo.  This was their opportunity! 

We walked the short distance to the restaurant, called Bambohe.  We paid about 9000 yen (around $85) for our entire family to eat yaki niku!  Not just any yaki niku--all you can eat!  Yeah!  Something that was kind of funny was that there was a time limit.  We had 1 1/2 hours to freely eat to our heart's content.  If we checked out after that time, we would have to pay the set fee again.

On the left side of the restaurant were many different cuts of raw meat and vegetables.  The kids grabbed a plate and loaded up.  Then, they brought their plates to the tables on the right side of the building and cooked their food on the yaki niku grill centered in the middle of the table.  While we were cooking the food, we enjoyed the other Japanese dishes they had available.  There was ramen, miso soup, yakisoba, rice, salads, jello, different types of soda, ice cream and small pieces of cake....it reminded us of Golden Corral in America except that all of the food was Japanese!  The best part was the sushi.  All you can eat sushi!  Do you have any idea how much sushi our family can put away if it's all you can eat?  Chris alone ate 32 pieces.  We definitely got our money's worth--both in the experience and in the amount of food we ate--from this restaurant!

Oh, the food was SOOO good!  And, the kids LOVED cooking their meat and vegetables on a grill set inside the table!

We stuffed ourselves so full, we were all a little sick when we were done.  Logan did throw up in the bathroom, but then came back and ate some more.  We rolled out of the restaurant with just minutes to spare on our time limit. 
This may not have been Okinawan food, but it was still an amazing and memorable way to spend our last night on this beautiful island!  It was awesome!